Why we should give credit to political opponents who deliver good policies - Andy Brown

On North Yorkshire Council that isn’t actually very difficult because there is one very big up front policy of the current Conservative leadership which I have agreed with and publicly championed from the start.

Early in its life the ruling group on the council decided to put a tax on second homes in order to build social housing and care homes. That was actually a very brave thing to do as several of its own councillors owned second homes or had people who had voted for them who did.

The downside of the policy is that it meant higher taxes for those who owned a second home and as always with any decision there were a few people who had good genuine reasons for that who ended up paying. There were a lot more owners whose normal residence is in London who could afford to buy a holiday cottage in the Dales or in Whitby out of their small change and who barely noticed the impact on their finances.

What was done with the money wasn’t to stuff it into the coffers of the council or use it to prop up the badly stretched organisational finances. Every penny of it has been allocated to building second homes or care homes that are much needed by our residents.

If you were brought up or work in a tourist hotspot like Robin Hood’s Bay the chances of you being able to buy or rent a local home are almost zero if you depend on an average local salary. The price of buying a home has been driven through the roof by outsiders who can out compete any local. The rentals have similarly shot up because more can be obtained from Airbnb than from a local restaurant worker or a holiday flat cleaner.

If the tax encouraged anyone to put a home onto the market then that has to be good for local people. The over £10m of revenue the tax generated enables the council to make more good quality reasonably priced rental homes available for local people and is helping elderly people who need care to get well looked after nearer to home at less cost to council tax payers.

That makes the policy a win on almost every count. We need first homes in North Yorkshire not second ones so well done to my fellow Yorkshire Post columnist Carl Les for launching the policy. Nice to be able to support his administration for once. Particularly when Reform opposed the policy on the grounds that they felt sorry for wealthy second home owners from London.

Whilst I’m being generous I also think the Labour Party nationally have finally made a good and a brave decision that needs backing.

There are few harder things for a parent than to have to try and look after a child with learning difficulties and then to encounter a clumsy, aggressively bureaucratic system that fails to meet needs.

The current system requires users to devote time, skill, persistence and knowledge and I’ve spoken to more than one parent who has been completely worn down and demoralised by the process of trying to get their child a reasonable standard of education.

The current arrangements have cost local authorities a shedload of money and been one of the key reasons some have been pushed to the brink of bankruptcy yet has too often failed to help appropriately. Far too many children are being sent in expensive taxis many miles from home to attend specialist schools.

Some of those schools are privately-owned and have been set up to make as much money as they can from the clumsy system whereas local specialists that are still there because of a passion to look after kids in difficult circumstances are often full.

So redesigning the system and putting £4bn into it has multiple advantages. It transforms the finances of local authorities and will allow them to do more for their communities. It could change the lives of parents and kids who need specialist provision. It could also help mainstream schools to look after a wider range of children from the communities they are there to serve.

No policy is ever perfect and reforms don’t always succeed in achieving the intended benefits so many parents who have battled to get their child’s needs properly recognised will be rightly very nervous. It is, however, worth giving credit where it is due. This is a much needed policy reset and comes with genuinely good intentions and serious new money.

If we could get North Yorkshire Council to decide to be a lot more flexible about its home to school transport policies and the Labour government to wise up about Donald Trump I might be able to say nice things more often.

Andy Brown is the Green Party councillor for Aire Valley.